“I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave.”
― William Woods Holden, 38th & 40th Governor of North Carolina
Greetings Western North Carolina Church of God family!
Today marks my first day of serving you as your new Administrative Bishop.
As I sat to write this greeting to you, I must admit that the very thing that came to mind was all those times North Carolina teams (Duke, UNC, NC State, and Wake Forest) broke my heart back in my boyhood days when I was a big South Carolina Gamecock fan (especially during the Frank McGuire era).
I have long since moved beyond those days and hardly know anything about the Gamecocks or any team for that matter. So all is forgiven. 😊
My second memory is far better and goes back to Sonja’s and my early pastoral days when we took the bait to go to Sapphire Valley, NC for a three-day-two-night “free” vacation. We ended up buying a timeshare week. (At 14.5% interest!)
Being a preacher’s kid who lived in parsonages all my life, what originally enticed me to sign the dotted line was actually owning 1/52 of that little condo.
It was the ninth week of the year, and for almost three decades in late February/early March Team Kemp made the pilgrimage up to Sapphire Valley to spend a delightful week at “our” condo and enjoy the beautiful mountains and communities of Brevard, Cashiers and Highlands. Some of our most treasured and favorite memories as a family are connected to that very special place.
I never dreamed that one day Sonja and I would return.
But by God’s grace and with a heart full of gratitude, here we are! We could not be more happy about it.
My dear brothers and sisters, I am very much aware that trust must be earned, so I will not waste your time giving you flowery platitudes and making promises and commitments that require your blind trust.
My only ask is that you trust me enough to believe this single promise: I will give you my very best. And together…
I believe we are going to write the next amazing chapter in the long and illustrious WNCCOG story!
With great anticipation,
David L. Kemp
The ONE THING 
Dear Brother Kemp,
Our prayers go out to you and Sonja at this time of transition. Faye and I pray for you both to remember one vital point, no, the most important point of this new assignment. You all are in western North Carolina because this is where the Lord has led, guided and directed you to. I truly believe great and mighty things for the Kingdom await you here. May God richly bless all that you put your hand to, knowing that you will be doing it all in the mighty, matchless name of Jesus! Blessings to you both my friend.
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Thank you for your kind words. So far so good. We had a very good first week. Today begins Week-2 and I’m looking forward to it. (Except for the boxes we still need to unpack!) We’ll get it done…eventually. 🙂
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Our last move as in 2018 from the DFW metroplex to east Texas, Winnsboro, small town of about 3500 folks. That was 2 years after I retired. I now work many more hours a week than I did when I was employed. My honey do list grows longer every week. Just hit 75 last month, but still moving on. BTW it was spring of 2019 before we had all our boxes unpacked. We still, 8 years after the move, have not found some items. We did find one missing box the other day, stuck in the back of a closet, just crazy.
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